# Republicans itching to use Hammer & Sickle logo against Sanders. Best response? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 2, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898 "2016-02-02T01:28:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/21 "2016-02-02T16:47:52Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The middle class being broadly responsible for reducing wealth inequality is a key feature of European social democracy. I’ve no idea how the figures stack up for either the EU or Sanders’s proposals, but the key point here is a fair contribution for a fair share of whatever service(s) we’re talking about: achieving buy-in by creating a service the middle classes - even the rich - use as much as the working class and underclass. Both sides of the equation are equally important. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/22 "2016-02-02T16:55:41Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > He honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Seriously, **adaher**? It was a working vacation- the twelve-person delegation left the day after he and his wife got married. The city they visited? It was the sister city of the town he was mayor of at the time. [He was working the entire time they were there](http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/aug/12/george-will/george-will-reminds-readers-about-bernie-sanders-u/). Hardly romantic, hardly a vacation. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/23 "2016-02-02T17:07:22Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Only one answer, only one thing trumps hammer and sickle: he has to go swastika. Or just use the [new Trump logo.](http://web.acsalaska.net/~fmurtley/Trumplogo3.png) ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/24 "2016-02-02T17:10:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by Absolute > So those statements are acceptable when directed against the wealthy, but not against Jews? As a wealthy secular Jew, I can say yes too. ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/25 "2016-02-02T17:20:26Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > He honeymooned in the Soviet Union. He’s not “Democratic socialist” except to the extent that he needs to be to get elected. He also seemed to be a fan of Castro and the Sandinistas in the 80s. He also went to Daniel Ortega’s inauguration, as I recall. He can’t hide what he is. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/26 "2016-02-02T17:41:51Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > He also went to Daniel Ortega’s inauguration, as I recall. > > He can’t hide what he is. And Jane Fonda went to North Vietnam, but that don’t make her no Commie. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/27 "2016-02-02T17:43:13Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > Selling arms to a country that only a few years earlier had taken over our embassy and held our citizens hostage for over a year doesn’t qualify as “supporting our adversaries”?? :smack: Is there any Republican who supported the arms for hostages deal other than Reagan? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/28 "2016-02-02T17:44:49Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > Seriously, **adaher**? > > It was a working vacation- the twelve-person delegation left the day after he and his wife got married. The city they visited? It was the sister city of the town he was mayor of at the time. [He was working the entire time they were there](http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/aug/12/george-will/george-will-reminds-readers-about-bernie-sanders-u/). Hardly romantic, hardly a vacation. That’s a reasonable defense. Which is the purpose of this thread.😃 My own view of Sanders is that he’s a leftist activist who hasn’t given quite enough thought to what that means. He’s got his own views, and they are unique, so even his self labelling isn’t quite fair to himself. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/29 "2016-02-02T17:50:12Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > He honeymooned in the Soviet Union. He’s not “Democratic socialist” except to the extent that he needs to be to get elected. He also seemed to be a fan of Castro and the Sandinistas in the 80s. > > Now I don’t believe he’s a communist, but his rather typical leftist cluelessness about horrible dictatorships when he was relatively younger is always useful fodder if you can get it. The 1950s called. They want The Red Scare back. Seriously, there is no way that ANY Republican can criticize ANY Democrat on foreign policy. There was Bush’s two disastrous, costly, and totally futile wars in the Middle East, Reagan invading Grenada and selling arms to Iran, Bush’s “axis of evil”, Trump’s Muslim ban, we could be here all day talking about Republican foreign policy missteps. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/30 "2016-02-02T17:53:58Z")
That’s a good comeback too, but it doesn’t get you out of the moral dimension. Republicans can be criticized for too much moralization in foreign policy and not enough realism. Sanders also embraces a moralistic foreign policy, except he thinks our historic adversaries were right. It’s a far cry from Obama’s foreign policy, which if anything has been coldly realist. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/31 "2016-02-02T17:56:33Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That’s a reasonable defense. Which is the purpose of this thread.😃 > > My own view of Sanders is that he’s a leftist activist who hasn’t given quite enough thought to what that means. He’s got his own views, and they are unique, so even his self labelling isn’t quite fair to himself. Yeah he’s only been a lefty politician for 40 years. I doubt he has really got a handle on his own political views. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/32 "2016-02-02T17:58:22Z")
They are unique to him, so he doesn’t really have a handle on who his fellow travellers actually are. I’d say he owes more to Lafollette than Scandinavia. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/33 "2016-02-02T17:59:11Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That’s a good comeback too, but it doesn’t get you out of the moral dimension. Republicans can be criticized for too much moralization in foreign policy and not enough realism. Sanders also embraces a moralistic foreign policy, except he thinks our historic adversaries were right. Are you planning to provide anything that even looks like a cite for your claim that “Sanders…thinks our historic adversaries were right”? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/34 "2016-02-02T18:03:46Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They are unique to him, so he doesn’t really have a handle on who his fellow travellers actually are. I’d say he owes more to Lafollette than Scandinavia. You know he’s won and lost a lot of elections, right? I am sure he is quite aware of his fellow travelers. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/35 "2016-02-02T18:07:00Z")
He had kind words for Castro: > **[Bernie Sanders Praised Fidel Castro and Cuba in 1985 (VIDEO) | The Gateway...](https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/10/bernie-sanders-praised-fidel-castro-and-cuba-in-1985-video/)** > > In 1985, while he was the mayor of Burlington, VT, Bernie Sanders gave an interview to the local cable access network during which he praised Fi Castro for educating his people and giving them healthcare. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/36 "2016-02-02T18:08:44Z")
Are all the hit ads going to feature 30+ year old events? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/37 "2016-02-02T18:09:07Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > You know he’s won and lost a lot of elections, right? I am sure he is quite aware of his fellow travelers. So he is a socialist as he says. Thank you. You know we don’t even need to exaggerate with the hammer and sickle. Just play video of him calling himself a socialist, observing that Soviet health care is cheaper, and that Castro’s people don’t rebel because he gave them education and health care. I’d note that Clinton allies, as in 2008,. are doing a lot of testing of these messages for us on a smaller scale. > **[A Pro-Clinton Super PAC Is Going Negative On Bernie Sanders](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-jeremy-corbyn_n_55f73339e4b00e2cd5e79e11)** > > The group links Sanders to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and the United Kingdom's new Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/38 "2016-02-02T18:10:08Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Are all the hit ads going to feature 30+ year old events? When you’re as old as he is, 30 years isn’t youthful naivete. This is not John Kerry throwing his medals. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/39 "2016-02-02T18:12:58Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > He had kind words for Castro: > > [http://www.progressivestoday.com/bernie-sanders-praised-fidel-castro-and-cuba-in-1985-video/](http://www.progressivestoday.com/bernie-sanders-praised-fidel-castro-and-cuba-in-1985-video/) Caveats: A) I think this was a response to my request for a cite. B) I didn’t watch the video, but I assume the quotes were the relevant parts. This is one of those “Mussolini made the trains run on time” types of things. Willingness to admit Castro did some things well in Cuba is hardly the same as thinking our historic adversaries were right. IE, “Right about some things” \< “Right.” ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898/40 "2016-02-02T18:15:01Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > When you’re as old as he is, 30 years isn’t youthful naivete. This is not John Kerry throwing his medals. I didn’t bring up youthful naivete. Most normal people evolve over that course of time. If all the hit ads feature videos of a 35 year old Sanders, people will notice how far back his haters are reaching. Most people favour opening up to Cuba, showing hit ads about Castro isn’t going to help in the general much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-itching-to-use-hammer-sickle-logo-against-sanders-best-response/744898.md?page=3)